The 16.8-mile collider needs curves to accelerate protons to gain energy and mass.

Question 2 of 20

My, what big vacuum tubes you have! Why exactly is the LHC so large?

Nobody knew how big to make it, so they just guessed.

The tunnel was left over from an old particle accelerator.

The circumference was a lucky number in Switzerland where it was built.

Turns out the LHC is that big because the Large Electron-Positron Collider -- the accelerator that was in the space before the LHC -- was made to that size.

Question 3 of 20

What does CERN, the organization that runs the LHC, stand for?

the Center for Energy, Radiation and Nuclear Study

the European Organization for Nuclear Research

Sure, CERN refers to the European Organization for Nuclear Research, but the acronym came from the original name: Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire.

the Center for European Research and Negotiations

Question 4 of 20

Where do the folks at the LHC get all of the protons that go zipping around?

from oxygen

from hydrogen

All those protons come alive courtesy of a bottle of hydrogen gas that starts the process.

from helium

Question 5 of 20

What does NOT happen to particles before they go into the LHC?

The electrons are stripped.

The protons are fed into preliminary accelerators.

The particles are cleaned and rinsed.

Electrons are stripped from a gas (hydrogen, as we just discussed). That step and a few others eventually leaves only the meaty proton goodness for the process of acceleration.

Question 6 of 20

KA BLAM. What happens when the protons smash together?

They've only smashed together once or twice, so we couldn't say for sure what happens.

a black hole

mini Big Bang

While it sounds dire, physicists are recreating a Tiny Bang to see what was happening moments after the universe was created. But don't freak out: Any black holes created would be miniscule and immediately disappear.

Question 7 of 20

The huge magnets inside the LHC help to steer the proton beam. Are those magnets cold or hot?

cold

They like it chilly, to the tune of negative 520 degrees F (negative 271 degrees C). That is indeed colder than outer space, reports CERN.

hot

Question 8 of 20

What were scientists NOT looking for in the LHC?

superpartners

black holes

While it might be cool to find one, scientists were not looking for black holes. And if they knew what was good for them, they were probably trying to actively avoid them.

Higgs boson

Question 9 of 20

What can NOT be discovered at the LHC?

string theory

While superparticles in the LHC could confirm supersymmetry, and the Higgs confirmed theories about how particles gained mass, there is no silver bullet that would "prove" string theory correct in the collider.

supersymmetry

how particles gain mass

Question 10 of 20

How many proton collisions occur each second in the LHC?

A second? Please. There are only a couple every few months.

450

600 million

Hundreds of millions! Imagine keeping track of all that data.

Question 11 of 20

What does the Proton Synchrotron do?

lines up the protons

washes the protons

speeds up the protons

Before the particles shoot around the LHC, they must be thoroughly accelerated. The Proton Synchrotron speeds 'em up to 99.9 percent the speed of light.

Question 12 of 20

What is the Higgs boson named after?

the Higgs field

the physicist who theorized its existence

Both the Higgs field and Higgs boson were named for Peter Higgs, who first said something like, "Hey, what if particles actually kind of don't have mass even if we see they do?"

the brother of the physicist who theorized its existence

Question 13 of 20

What scientific theory did the Higgs "complete"?

physics

supersymmetry

the Standard Model

The Standard Model, which sums up what we know about particle physics, needed the Higgs boson to really make sense.

Question 14 of 20

What are hadrons?

a nickname that theoretical physicists give experimental physicists

particles composed of quarks

Quarks are the smallest parts of atoms we can observe. When they crowd together, we get a hadron, which helps form matter.

elementary particles

Question 15 of 20

How certain were scientists that they found the Higgs in 2012?

There was a 1-in-3.5- million chance the data were wrong.

There was a 1-in-3.5-million chance they were observing incorrectly.

There was a 1-in-3.5-million chance they'd see what they saw, and it still wasn't the Higgs.

When we first heard the Higgs was discovered, scientists gave it a 5-sigma level of certainty. That means there was a 1-in-3.5-million chance that the Higgs didn't exist, but the scientists would still get the same results.

Question 16 of 20

How much did the LHC cost?

$6 billion

The $6 billion price tag was just the cost of construction, mind you. The estimated cost to find the Higgs boson in general? $13.25 billion. But who can put a price on universe-altering discoveries?

$3 billion

$985 million

Question 17 of 20

How in the world do physicists see proton collisions?

really big magnifying glasses

A special camera captures them in super-duper slow motion.

detectors and data

OK, boring but true: Physicists pore over data from various detectors and trackers that help identify particles by their unique paths. They also rely on a few other clues.

Question 18 of 20

Why does the LHC need its "large" adjective?

The larger the accelerator, the more protons it can hold.

It needs a long, straight line before it turns.

Nice, long, gentle curves accommodate more acceleration.

More acceleration through long curves -- as you approach the speed of light -- translates to more mass. That gives us collisions with more energy that allows us to see debris with heavier mass.

Question 19 of 20

Besides proton collisions, what other work is done in the LHC?

alchemy

heavy lead ion collisions

Physicists also study lead ion collisions at the LHC, which gives them a look into the quark-gluon plasma that formed after the Big Bang.

astrological calendars

Question 20 of 20

When is the LHC set to turn on again?

2020

2015

When the LHC resumes work in 2015, it will be able to perform collisions at even higher energies -- perhaps giving us a glimpse of new, denser particles.